The worldwide demand for citrus oil, used in a wide and expanding number of products, continues to rise. There is a large demand for increasing the percentage of oil recovered from lemons and other citrus fruits. There is also a rising demand to increase the throughput capacity of oil extraction equipment. The oil extraction systems discussed herein typically process over 10 metric tons of citrus per hour. Any increase in the percentage of citrus oil extracted not only increases profitability, but also has the environmental advantage of reducing the handling and treatment of oil which is not extracted. It is also important to minimize the amount of water utilized in the oil extraction process. A further problem in either increasing the percentage of oil extracted or increasing throughput capacity is to avoid increasing the footprint of the equipment. By avoiding an increased footprint, the expense and down time of installing new equipment are minimized. A related demand is that the new equipment be capable of being retrofitted to existing equipment.